MACLC members note that since late summer 2011, and numerous reports of corruption and racism within the department, we have heard an increasing number of calls for oversight over the NYPD.  We would urge that such oversight include the possibly illegal and certainly problematic surveillance and training programs for officers involved in national security and intelligence collection.  NYPD must be more accountable and transparent.

As you will see documented below, MACLC  has made many efforts to meet with Commissioner Kelly about the Islamophobic content of trainings;  and following the publication of a Jan 23, 2012 New York Times article exposing NYPD’s misleading statements concerning this issue, coalition members can now better understand why we were rebuffed or sidelined for so long. Thanks to our partner Brennan Center for its efforts to uncover this troubling info, documented HERE .

At the end of 2011, Muslim New Yorkers and interfaith allies wrote a letter reminding Mayor Bloomberg that many community leaders do not accept his uncritical support for current policies: Letter

The Muslim American Civil Liberties Coalition   (MACLC) supported the November 18 rally for NYPD accountability and against “Police Repression.” See flier: Nov-18-Flyer#1 and nov_18_flyer2 and nov19threePDF and video

MACLC would also like to express sincere gratitude to New York Senator Kevin Parker, Senator Bill Perkins, Senator Velmanette Montgomery, Senator Gustavo Rivera, Senator Liz Krueger, Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson and Senator Shirley L. Huntley for their courageous stance against the NYPD’s reported espionage and surveillance of the American Muslim community in New York, and for their uncompromising position that law enforcement must work within the framework of our laws and Constitution.  As a coalition of Muslim organizations and advocacy groups, MACLC shares these concerns, and believes that an immediate investigation of the allegations is necessary.  MACLC was formed in 2008 following the NYPD’s release of its highly prejudicial radicalization report and since then has been calling for oversight of law enforcement and correction of faulty threat analysis and policing policies.

MACLC  also thanks the many City Council members for their support at the committee meeting on October 6, 2011 – we warmly hope and expect to see a full investigation of NYPD policies. It was Benjamin Franklin who said that “any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.” To echo Franklin’s sentiments, it is our belief that the breach of trust created by the New York Police Department not only serves to damage the critical and long-standing relationship between law enforcement and the American Muslim community, but also goes against our Constitutional principles of liberty and presumed innocence until otherwise proven.

MACLC Responds

to Reports of NYPD-CIA Collaboration

 (New York, NY, August 25, 2011)—The Muslim American Civil Liberties Coalition (MACLC) is deeply troubled by the news of the New York City Police Department’s collaboration with the Central Intelligence Agency to spy on American Muslim communities. The reporting suggests that the CIA may be violating the prohibition on domestic spying.  Despite Mayor Bloomberg’s insistence otherwise, it is clear that the NYPD is spying on entire communities without any particular suspicion of criminal activity.  Community-based surveillance falls well beyond the purview of even the NYPD’s broad preventative mandate.

From growing reliance on unsubstantiated and discriminatory theories about radicalization, to revelations about law enforcement’s use of Islamophobic training materials, to a number of reports documenting government informants literally encouraging and devising terrorist plots, there is a growing body of evidence to confirm what Muslim communities have been long been saying: the NYPD and FBI are engaging in blatant religious, racial, and national origin profiling and broad-based surveillance of Muslim communities, absent suspicion of criminal activity.  The FBI’s own guidelines authorize the agency to undertake “assessments” prior to any indication of criminal activity.  Now every American must ask about the role of the CIA in these operations.

Together, these practices paint a dangerous picture of the ways in which law enforcement engages with Muslim communities under the banner of national security. These McCarthyite spying techniques threaten the civil rights of all Americans, and deepen the long-existing rifts between communities of color and police in the United States.

Since 2007 MACLC has raised concerns about NYPD policies that encourage police officers to spy on Muslim communities when there is no indication of wrongdoing.  Despite MACLC’s best efforts, the NYPD has refused to engage meaningfully with those that draw attention to problems with its policies.  We believe the time has come for this issue to be taken up more broadly.

MACLC calls on:
• the New York City Council to investigate and oversee the NYPD’s operations, as well as a City Comptroller Audit;
• the Obama Administration to initiate a federal investigation into the extent to which the CIA has engaged in domestic spying within the United States, in violation of law and its manadate;
• Congress and the New York State Senate to hold hearings into the NYPD’s, FBI’s, and CIA’s surveillance and policing practices in Muslim communities with a focus on the role of informants;
• Congress and New York State Senate to pass enforceable anti-racial profiling legislation;
• NYPD and the Department of Justice to revise their internal guidelines to disallow the use of surveillance and informants absent suspicion of specific criminal activity.

MACLC also calls on the civil liberties community and civil society to send a message to the NYPD and Mayor Bloomberg that the public has not granted them a mandate for this surveillance operation.

ALL SIGNERS LINKED HERE: 110825-MACLC_Statement_NYPD_CIA (4)

For newest articles see right hand panel. FOIL requests and other legal actions may be found there and here: Court Filing Oct 2, 2011

Please visit this Link for MACLC’s latest Letter to NYPD (sent to the Commissioner July 22, 2011)

Pre-Ramadan_Breakfast_MACLC_Letter_to_NYPD

In addition, media reports included:

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/united-states/muslim-new-yorkers-seek-dignity-respect-from-nypd-53403.html

http://www.brennancenter.org/blog/archives/muslim_new_yorkers_still_waiting_for_answer/

http://www.wnyc.org/blogs/wnyc-news-blog/2011/mar/22/nypd-asked-explain-screening-anti-muslim-film/

Despite a letter from Commissioner Kelly acknowledging the issue, MACLC remains seriously troubled by the lack of transparency on this matter.

Tuesday, March 22nd 2011 at 2pm City Council members Daniel Dromm, Robert Jackson, Juamaane Willaims, Melissa Mark Viverito & many others:

For Full Press Advisory: MACLC_3.22_PressConfAdvisory_-_Dromm-Jackson

MACLC members sent a letter of concern to NYPD Commissioner Kelly regarding several reports of distorted right wing materials being used in NYPD officer training. MACLC members believe that these officers need to be retrained and the Department should not be using such clearly biased materials. As of early February 2011 we are waiting for a response.

See:

MACLC_Letter_-_NYPD_-_28_January_2011 (1)

On February 11 2011 MACLC sent a press release regarding the letter:

maclcPressReleaseFeb11pdfversion

In addition MACLC members have signed on to support statements of concern regarding the proposed King Hearings:

Coalition_Ltr_re_King_hearings,_2-1-11

Honorable Raymond Kelly

New York City Police Department

One Police Plaza

New York, NY 10038

Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat

Statement of Clarification

Dear Commissioner Kelly,

We the undersigned, members of the Muslim American Civil Liberties Coalition (“MACLC”), write with respect to the “Statement of Clarification” that was recently added to the New York City Police Department’s (“NYPD”) 2007 report, Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat (“Report”). [1]  We view the Statement of Clarification, as well as your October 6, 2008 letter, as positive examples of the NYPD’s willingness to consider the Coalition’s views regarding the Report.  That said, we feel that more action is necessary to address the concerns previously raised with your office.  In order to facilitate frank and open communication, we set out our reactions to the Statement of Clarification below, and we respectfully request a meeting to discuss the issues raised in this letter.

Release of Statement of Clarification

It is our understanding that the undated Statement of Clarification was added to the Report within the last few months without any public announcement.  MACLC was not informed of the decision to include the Statement of Clarification.  We became aware of the statement only through informal conversations, months after the release.  Moreover, it is our understanding that while the NYPD will use the current version of the Report going forward, it does not plan to inform prior recipients about the Statement of Clarification.

MACLC believes that if the purpose of the Statement of Clarification is to clarify the text of the Report so that the general Muslim community does not suffer harm and discrimination, then the Statement of Clarification must be released with the same level of public attention as the 2007 release of the Report.  To this end, the NYPD should proactively inform federal, state and local legislators and law enforcement agencies of the Statement of Clarification so that those entities do not, as some have seemingly done, use the Report as an enforcement guide.  A more public release of a Statement of Clarification can be an effective tool against crime and extremism as it will show the Muslim community and the general public that the NYPD is willing to listen to local communities of faith, and would demonstrate that the NYPD does not intend to target Muslim Americans as a matter of course.

Content of the Statement of Clarification

General

Notwithstanding the text of the Statement of Clarification and the good intentions behind its inclusion, the substantive text of the Report remains unchanged.  As a result, the Report continues to suffer from the deficiencies identified in our October 2008 report, “CountertERRORism Policy: MACLC’s Critique of the NYPD’s Report on Homegrown Radicalism.” [2]  We regret that the Statement of Clarification was relegated to an insert within the report, rather than being implemented throughout the text itself.

New York City Muslim Community as NYPD Ally

• MACLC applauds the NYPD for stating that “the NYPD report should not be read to characterize Muslims as intrinsically dangerous or intrinsically linked to terrorism, and that it cannot be a license for racial, religious, or ethnic profiling.”  Rather than being stated in a quietly released clarification in the middle of the Report, we believe that this type of language is most effective when it is stated at the front of the Report, throughout the Report, and in each public statement about the Report. 

Permeating the Community

• Despite the linguistic clarification of the word “permeated” and the statement that the report was not intended “to suggest that the NYC Muslim community has been saturated by extremism,” the unchanged language of the Report remains exceptionally troubling.  Beyond the sentence at issue (“Unfortunately, the City’s Muslim communities have been permeated by extremists who have and continue to sow the seeds of radicalization”), the continued use of quantitative terms such as “logarithmic” and “exponential” create a tone of alarm.  Moreover, the Report still plainly states that terrorists have infiltrated every aspect of the City’s Muslim community, including mosques, bookstores, student organizations and community institutions.  Such statements alienate the Muslim community and encourage prejudice against innocent citizens.  The Muslim community appreciates that the NYPD has tried to retract some of the implications of this statement and others like it, but the core language of the Report remains offensive and counter-productive.  When dealing with topics of great volatility and tremendous sensitivity, language like this can lead to grievances and unintended consequences.   
• Focusing on the internet as an example of permeation, the clarification notes that  “anyone in the community can access [terrorist websites].”  This is not the same as showing that many or even some New Yorkers have actually accessed such websites, or that the individuals accessing them are doing so with the purpose or  intention to engage in violent acts. 

Coupling Religion and Terror

• Beyond clarifying that the focus of the report is on al Qaeda, the Statement of Clarification and body of the Report should more clearly state that there is no per se link between Islam and terrorism and that the Report’s focus on al Qaeda should not be read to suggest such a link.

False Positives and Behaviors

• While the clarification notes the potential waste of law enforcement resources on tracking individuals who exhibit common religious behaviors at the early stages of radicalization – behaviors that are shared by many law abiding Muslims – the clarification seems to suggest that certain religious behaviors are appropriate to track at later stages.  Moreover, the remainder of the report continues to cite religious behaviors such as prayer, wearing a beard or mode of dress as potential indicia of incipient terrorist affiliation.  Signs of religiosity should be completely decoupled from violent behavior and must be treated as independent of radicalization.  Violent acts or violent threats in the name of religion need to be monitored, but individual religious ritual practices do not.   

Not Policy Prescriptive

• In our meetings and correspondence, the NYPD has repeatedly insisted that the Report “was never intended to be policy prescriptive for law enforcement actions” and that this point “should have been emphasized.”   The Muslim community appreciates this assurance and your restatement of the point in the Clarification.  However, the Report’s preface on page 2 still states that the “aim of this report is to assist policymakers and law enforcement officials.” Because the Report claims to be authoritative and “provide[s] a thorough understanding of the threat,” the text of the Clarification alone will not prevent policymakers from using the Report for their own ends, regardless of the NYPD’s stated intentions.  The NYPD Report has been cited by other law enforcement agencies and is clearly an influential document.  Moreover, we would like to know what specific efforts the NYPD has taken to “continue[] to underscore” that the Report is not policy prescriptive.

MACLC’S October 2008 Recommendations to the NYPD

In our October 2008 “CountertERRORism Policy” critique of the Report, we included  four categories of recommendations:  (1) Develop and make transparent the NYPD’s standards on civil liberties restrictions; (2) Develop structured approaches for partnering with the community; (3) Educate the NYPD about the Muslim Community; and (4) Educate leaders and community members about the NYPD Community Affairs Program.  We hope that through the implementation of these recommendations, we can make our ties stronger and our communities safer.  We would be interested in hearing your views on the critique and the recommendations therein.    

*   *   *   *   *

We respectfully request a meeting with your team to discuss the issues raised in this letter and in our October 2008 critique.  We, as residents of this great city, continue to support the NYPD’s interest in studying the ideological roots of terrorism, particularly in light of the tragedies of 1993 and 2001.  In that spirit, we seek to assist the NYPD and writers of the Report by correcting misperceptions and flawed conclusions.  We offer our comments with a desire to both improve public safety and safeguard our cherished liberties.

Thank you for your consideration.  Please direct any correspondence to Faiza N. Ali, Community Affairs Director, Council on American Islamic Relations-NY, 475 Riverside Drive, Room 246, New York, NY 10115.

Sincerely,

[2] Available at http://maclcnypdcritique.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/counterterrorism-policy-final-paper3.pdf

(full Report available at www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/downloads/pdf/public_information/NYPD_Report-Radicalization_in_the_West.pdf)

This statement should serve as a means of clarification for some issues that have arisen in the wake of this report’s publication.

 1) New York City Muslim Community as NYPD Ally: The NYPD Report,―Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat‖ is exclusively focused on al Qaeda inspired and linked terrorism in the West. The twisted ideology that underpins this specific type of terrorism claims its legitimacy from an extremist misinterpretation of Islam. As a consequence, this particular type of terrorist ideology has historically found most of its supporters to be Muslim.

Nevertheless, NYPD understands that it is a tiny minority of Muslims who subscribe to al Qaeda’s ideology of war and terror and that the NYPD’s focus on al Qaeda inspired terrorism should not be mistaken for any implicit or explicit justification for racial, religious or ethnic profiling.

Rather, the Muslim community in New York City is our ally and has as much to lose, if not more, than other New Yorkers if individuals commit acts of violence (falsely) in the name of their religion. As such, the NYPD report should not be read to characterize Muslims as intrinsically dangerous or intrinsically linked to terrorism, and that it cannot be a license for racial, religious, or ethnic profiling.

 2) Permeating the community: On Page 69 of the report, it says,

―Unfortunately, the City’s Muslim communities have been permeated by extremists who have and continue to sow the seeds of radicalization.‖

There has been some confusion about the precise intended meaning of this statement.

NYPD sought to use the word as Webster’s defines it – ―to diffuse through or penetrate something‖ to explain that extremists have, as a foreign element, penetrated the community and attempted to proliferate their ideology and thus ―sow the seeds of radicalization‖. The intention was never to suggest that the NYC Muslim community has been saturated by extremism.

The Internet serves as an excellent example of how extremists permeate the community online, as it provides a venue for more than 500 extremist websites — anyone in the community can access it.

 3) Coupling Religion and Terror: Al Qaeda inspired terrorism is not the only type of terrorism that New York City has faced. In fact, before 9/11, other religious and ethnic groups were responsible for more terrorist related deaths of New Yorkers than any Islamic group. These included the Italian anarchists of the early 20th century and the Puerto Rican FALN in the 1980’s, among others. However, given the almost 3,000 deaths in New York City as a result of al Qaeda terrorism, al Qaeda was chosen as the topic of this study.

 4) False positives and behaviors: Because of the NYPD’s focus on al

Qaeda inspired and linked terrorism in this report, it inevitably would focus on those who are most attracted to the ideology and those who have made up the majority of recruits to this specific movement.

This study analyzes the pathway by which these individuals got

radicalized. In all of the case studies, early steps in this process

happened in parallel with individuals’ greater devotion to their religion and greater observance of rituals. However, during the early stages of radicalization, the behaviors associated with a greater degree of religiosity, in and of themselves, cannot be used as a signature of someone potentially becoming a terrorist.

The individuals, at this point, do not know what trajectory they themselves will follow, so law enforcement would be doing itself a disservice and wasting significant resources on tracking individuals who simply exhibit behaviors that at this stage are perfectly benign and in the vast majority of cases not associated with terrorism.

5) Not policy prescriptive: The NYPD reiterates that this report was not intended to be policy prescriptive for law enforcement. In all of its dealings with Federal, State and Local authorities, the NYPD continues to underscore this important point.

MACLC

Muslim American Civil Liberties Coalition

January 14, 2009

The Honorable Raymond Kelly

New York City Police Department

One Police Plaza

New York, N.Y. 10038

Dear Commissioner Kelly,

We, the undersigned, are writing to request a meeting to register our concerns over the mishandling and arrest of nine young people by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) at the close of a recent rally in support of the civilians of Gaza. We are deeply concerned that this incident will exacerbate the growing rift between the Muslim community and NY officials.

The January 11th incident on Manhattan’s West Side has lead many in the NY Muslim community to suspect unwarranted police profiling of Muslim youth. Several eyewitnesses to the arrests claim that NYPD officers instigated altercations with protesters and used aggressive force to subdue the crowd.

Whether or not these allegations are true, trust between the Muslim community and the NYPD is indeed eroding. This incident, coupled with your recent visit to Israel with Mayor Bloomberg, sends a disconcerting message that the NYPD has taken a one-sided stance on the issue of Gaza here and abroad.

As the chief of the NYPD, you have a unique opportunity to repair the damage done to NYPD/NY Muslim community relations. We request that you meet with us to discuss these concerns in further detail and look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Omar Mohammedi

President, Association of Muslim American Lawyers

Wael Mousfar

President, Arab Muslim American Federation

Faiza N. Ali

Community Affairs Director, Council on American Islamic Relations-NY

Mohammad Razvi

Executive Director, Council of Peoples Organization

Khurshid Khan

President, Islamic Circle of North America

Imam Shamsi Ali

Director, Jamaica Muslim Center Inc.

Abdelhafid Djemil,

Outreach Coordinator, Muslim American Society New York

Adem Caroll

Board President, Muslim Consultative Network

Asim Rehman

President, Muslim Bar Association of New York

Naoma Nagahawatte

Director, Muslim Public Affairs Council-NYC Office

Aisha Al-Adawiya

Executive Director, Women in Islam Inc.

On December 12, 2008 MACLC sent a letter to Janet Napolitano, the new head of Department of Homelands Security, calling on the new Administration to develop security polices that avoid linking religious precepts with terrorism. See: http://maclc2.wordpress.com/

napolitanoletter1